Homages to the Square

Josef Albers began his Homage to the Square series in the summer of 1949.

He made more than a thousand related paintings in 14 different geometric formats until his death in 1976.

These rigorously ordered compositions were merely means to an end.

Each work reveals how our perception of a single colour is variable.

It might project or recede, look brighter or dimmer, depending on its proximity to and interaction with adjacent colours.

Albers created countless combinations in which the value and effect of individual colours change markedly from work to work.

We analysed all available true colour grading data and compositional iterations from the catalogue raisonné.

Using Albers actual colours as a choreographic framework, a continuously evolving sequence of new compositions was generated algorithmically and displayed digitally.

All the possible colour interactions and variations that Albers left unmade.

100,000,000,000,000 to the power of 4 ...

With kind permission of  The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

Collaborators

Nicholas Fox-Weber

Brenda Danilowitz

Wayne McGregor

Mike Smith Studio

Programming

Cassiel

Nick Rothwell

Photography

Gilbert McCarragher

Douglas Tuck

Homages to the Square

Josef Albers began his Homage to the Square series in the summer of 1949.

He made more than a thousand related paintings in 14 different geometric formats until his death in 1976.

These rigorously ordered compositions were merely means to an end.

Each work reveals how our perception of a single colour is variable.

It might project or recede, look brighter or dimmer, depending on its proximity to and interaction with adjacent colours.

Albers created countless combinations in which the value and effect of individual colours change markedly from work to work.

We analysed all available true colour grading data and compositional iterations from the catalogue raisonné.

Using Albers actual colours as a choreographic framework, a continuously evolving sequence of new compositions was generated algorithmically and displayed digitally.

All the possible colour interactions and variations that Albers left unmade.

100,000,000,000,000 to the power of 4 ...

With kind permission of  The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

Collaborators

Nicholas Fox-Weber

Brenda Danilowitz

Wayne McGregor

Mike Smith Studio

Programming

Cassiel

Nick Rothwell

Photography

Gilbert McCarragher

Douglas Tuck